3 Comments

Just need to do that every few months and mine will probably last another year. I love the idea of the Roomba but the execution of the idea is worse than ...%#*@ I can't think of a poorer design built from as great an idea.

Thanks to the author for putting together such a complete guide to the most maintenance-heavy cleaning-maintenance device of all time.

That's it. If you've got compressed air, maintaining a Roomba is simple. You could also just use that canned-air duster thing you have sitting next to your computer keyboard.

As far as problems go, only two problems ever seem to occur in real life. The battery is obviously one. The other is a failure somewhere in the cleaning head gear train. This is solved by simply replacing the cleaning head, a five-minute repair requiring a part you can buy on eBay for $50. Now you don't have to worry about taking the cleaning head apart and refurbishing it, because you're lazy and have money. Go ahead, do it the easy way. Get a new cleaning head, blow some compressed air through it while you have it apart, and your bot will be good as new.

I've had my roomba at least 5 years and I've had to fix the bump sensor twice. There is an LED deep in the guts of your roomba that gradually dims, and when it goes you get roomba going in circles and beeping nine times. You can fix it but it requires some crazy disassembly and some soldering. See here for a guide: http://www.schneordesign.com/Avi/irobot/...